Saturday, April 23, 2016

The complete Arc recordings of Big Slim, The Lone Cowboy, comprising of three LPs released 1961-1964, are presented here. Below is a brief biography of Big Slim from "Mountaineer Jamboree: Country Music in West Virginia" by Ivan M. Tribe (The University Of Kentucky Press, 1984):

One of the musicians who came to WWVA as a Border Rider soon branched out on his own. Big Slim McAuliffe had already experienced a wide degree of geographic and occupational variety. Born in Mercer County, West Virginia, on May 9, 1903 (or 1899, or 1904, or 1905), the facts of Slim’s personal life have become somewhat clouded largely because of his own capacity for contradictory statements. For instance, in a 1939 autobiographical statement in one of his songbooks Slim claimed to have been born in the city of Bluefield and on a 750-acre farm. He also contended he had been orphaned at eight, left home at eleven, and become a radio trick rider that same year, while on another page he displayed a contemporary photo of his father. Slim also punched cows and railroaded according to his “Life Story” before entering radio work in 1929. He gained radio experience in Pittsburgh and on a border station at Eagle Pass, Texas. On December 17, 1936, he did a session for Decca under the name Big Slim Aliff which included the initial recording of the country standard “Footprints in the Snow” under that title. He came to WWVA late in 1937. At five feet eleven inches and 175 pounds he was neither very big nor very slim, but the nickname did seem to be in character with his other qualities.Big Slim possessed a rich and deep voice and rendered good versions of both common and more obscure western songs such as “The Strawberry Roan” and “Patanio, the Pride of the Plains.” He also sang mountain ballads like “Hills of Roane County” and copyrighted some good original material such as “On the Sunnyside of the Mountain” and “Moonlight on My Cabin” (although he reportedly wrote none of them). Slim had other talents which supplemented his stage shows, including whip and rope tricks along with a trained horse act. While the Lone Cowboy generally stayed close to WWVA, he went to other stations for brief stints and later helped younger artists such as Hank Snow and Hawkshaw Hawkins.
Harry C. "Big Slim" McAuliffe passed away in 1966, two years after the release of his last Arc album.

An early bird Starday Saturday special! This collection of early Buck tracks plus some covers by Starday standbys popped up through the years with a few different covers and issue numbers. This edition is from 1965, and supposedly Buck worked a deal with Don Pierce to sell it at live shows at a time when Owens wasn't getting along so well with Capitol. All great stuff, enjoy!

Sunday, April 17, 2016

I am very pleased to present yet another rare LP on the Audio Lab label, "A Variety Of Country Sacred Songs". This fantastic transfer comes to us courtesy of the Attic's good friend Rounder, who previously sent the J.E. Mainer track from this album to add to the recent post of J.E.'s King recordings. Thanks Rounder!Standard vintage King country gospel fare comprises this 1961 collection, with many great titles including the Delmores and Turners as the "Harlan County Four" and early Johnny & Jack as "King's Sacred Quartet". Prime stuff....Tracks:1. Brother Claude Ely-Holy, Holy, Holy2. Shorty Long-No Wars In Heaven3. Harlan County Four-Show Me The Way4. Bill Franklin-That Moon's No Stopping Place For Me5. Esco Hankins-Wait For The Light To Shine6. J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers-If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again7. Wade Mainer-I'm Not Looking Backward8. Trace Family Trio-Take Time To Understand9. Gene Davis-I Won't Tell Anybody But My Lord10. Kitty Mann-My Bright Tomorrow11. King's Sacred Quartet-I'll Be Listening12. Gurney Thomas-Jesus And Mother*download here*

Saturday, April 2, 2016

I am most glad to present today a truly classic Starday album by one of country music's greatest and most legendary old time fiddlers, the late Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise. This 1962 LP was his first, and many of its tracks found their way onto various Starday and Gusto compilations through the years. Interestingly, the sessions were recorded at Chubby's boss Hank Snow's home studio, and he contributed notes as well. Although these notes credit "Gene Martin on the open-string Martin flat-top guitar", I have to wonder if the Singing Ranger himself isn't playing some of the acoustic guitar here as it seems to have his characteristically stiff but rhythmic quality. I would imagine that as he was contacted to RCA Victor he couldn't be credited here, although there is no way to know for sure.
Starday honcho Don Pierce and Snow's notes are below:

“Fiddlin”, country style, has become a highly developed art in the United States and Canada. Some 36 years ago, the World famous Grand Ole Opry started in Nashville, Tennessee with a weekly gathering of Tennessee fiddlers playing a variety of the tunes that expressed the joys, sadness, love, sorrow, and hardship of our rural people.The great old fiddle tunes, played in waltz time, in rag time, and with the real traditional southern blues feeling have been “hard to get” in recent years. Therefore, Starday is fortunate to be able to offer this outstanding collection of recordings in the true Tennessee Fiddler style by Chubby Wise, a long time favorite at the Grand Ole Opry, and accompanied by Hank Snow’s internationally famous Rainbow Ranch Boys. We were also fortunate to obtain the valued assistance of the one and only Hank Snow, an all time country music great, to produce the recordings at the studio in his Rainbow Ranch home in Nashville, Tennessee. Hank has been an outstanding recording star for RCA-Victor for over 25 years and is presently one of RCA’s top selling country artists.Hank, and his Rainbow Ranch Boys are known throughout the world for the purity of their country music style. Since Chubby Wise has been Hank’s assistant for many years in the management of the Rainbow Ranch Boys, and has appeared with Hank throughout the United States and Canada, we feel that no one is better qualified than Mr. Hank Snow to provide the following interesting highlights concerning the personality and career of the featured artist, Chubby Wise.

RespectfullyDON PIERCE, PresidentSTARDAY RECORDS

“During the many years that Chubby Wise has worked with me and my Rainbow Ranch Boys, we have covered a lot of territory, met a lot of wonderful people, and made many wonderful friends. We have had so many requests from our friends for recordings of the many fiddle tunes that Chubby Wise plays on our personal appearances, on my RCA-Victor records, and on the stage at the Grand Ole Opry, that I personally wanted his fiddle work to be recorded. We welcomed the opportunity to work with Starday Records on this project because Starday is a label that specializes in the traditional type of country music that seems to become more popular every year. Let me point out a few things about my good friend, Chubby Wise, the Tennessee Fiddler extraordinary.“Chubby has been a professional fiddler for 30 years. His childhood was spent in the Lake City, Florida area, but in 1942, he entered on the Tennessee musical scene as a member of Bill Monroe’s famous Bluegrass Boys on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Chubby played fiddle on all of Bill Monroe’s older recordings on the Columbia label. The recognition he received for his fiddle work with Bill Monroe resulted in the opportunity to record with many other great country music stars such as Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and Jimmy Martin, to name only a few. “In 1948, Chubby joined the Clyde Moody band working out of Washington, D.C. A little later on, he was a regular on Connie B. Gay’s GAYTIME TV SHOW out of Washington. Then he appeared with Elton Britt on a TV show for several months.“It was in 1954 that he joined my Rainbow Ranch Boys and he’s been with us ever since. He’s the leader and head arranger of the Band and a sincere and dedicated person that I have enjoyed working with. In 1957, I had the pleasure of working with Chubby Wise on the “Perry Como Show”. We have appeared on radio, television, stages and recordings together for many years. Our type of music is not written out, but it is played from the heart, spontaneously, and each member of the group has to know his job. Chubby is a good showman, a good musician, and above all, he is the type of person that can spend long hours on the road and still look fresh and put on a good performance for the fine people who honor our show by coming to see us.On the personal side, Chubby Wise is married, has one daughter, and lives in Nashville. His hobbies are fishing and fiddlin’. We’ve had many good times together but we have never had more fun than the informal get-togethers when these recordings were made at the small studio that I have in my home in Nashville.“Gathered together was Howard White, on steel guitar, Gene Martin on the open-string Martin flat-top guitar. Ed Hyde on rhythm guitar and Junior Huskey played bass. The boys took their time and rambled through a collection of the great old songs that are the most adaptable for the Chubby Wise fiddlin’ style. We wanted to offer a variety of tunes and the listener can tell that these boys were having a ball.“Speaking on behalf of all the Rainbow Ranch Boys, this old Singin’ Ranger hopes that folks in the U.S. and Canada, and all over the world for that matter, enjoy this music as much as we enjoyed recording it.”